First, the disciplinary nature of logic.
1. logic tool
Since its birth, logic has been widely used as a tool science. Aristotle, the founder of logic, regarded the deductive logic he founded as a "tool of argument", and his main logical works were named "tool theory" when they were compiled into books by his disciples. Francis, another milestone in the history of logic? Bacon said that the inductive logic he founded was "a tool for discovery and invention", so he named his main logical work "New Tools".
The instrumentality of logic is determined by the object of its study. All kinds of thinking forms and methods in logic research should be used in scientific thinking and daily thinking, and the laws of correct thinking should be observed in both scientific thinking and daily thinking. Any scientific thinking and daily thinking should apply logic. At this point, logic has exactly the same nature as basic tool disciplines such as Chinese and mathematics.
As an instrumental discipline, the research objects of logic, such as thinking forms, thinking methods and thinking laws, can be used not only by all social strata and industries, but also by people from different countries, regions and nationalities all over the world.
2. The humanity of logic
Humanities is a scientific system that takes the human spiritual world and its materialized spiritual and cultural products as the research object, mainly including traditional literature, history and philosophy, as well as logic, ethics, aesthetics, religion, culturology and literature and art derived from it. The purpose of studying and studying humanities is to improve people's own quality and cultivate the spirit of seeking truth, goodness and beauty, so as to achieve the internal harmony of social relations and further improve the overall level of social civilization. If ethics teaches people how to distinguish between good and evil, encourages people to be good, aesthetics teaches people how to distinguish between beauty and ugliness, and encourages people to seek beauty, then logic is to teach people how to distinguish between true and false and encourage people to seek truth. In the knowledge system of logic, there is always the distinction between truth and falsehood and the scientific belief of seeking truth. Logic plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating people's habit of independent thinking, the spirit of pursuing truth and the courage to expose fallacies (these are all indispensable elements of a perfect personality).
Second, the significance of learning logic
1. Mastering logical tools to improve comprehensive ability
Logic is an instrumental subject, and mastering logical tools can improve the comprehensive ability of finding, analyzing and solving problems. Specific performance in:
First, learning logic helps to improve logical thinking ability.
People's logical thinking ability is not innate, but acquired through learning and training. People who haven't systematically studied logic can think normally because all kinds of education they have received since childhood (especially the two main courses of Chinese and mathematics) contain a lot of thinking training content. However, thinking without the guidance of logical theory is only spontaneous thinking, not conscious thinking, which is limited to the correctness and agility of thinking.
The process of logical thinking includes the process of forming concepts, using concepts to form judgments, using various forms of reasoning to deduce new judgments from known judgments, using various forms of reasoning and logical laws to put forward and verify hypotheses, and conducting logical argumentation, and so on. Through the study of logic, we have mastered the basic knowledge of concepts, judgments, reasoning, assumptions, arguments and logical laws, so that we can use them to guide our thinking, correctly use various thinking forms and methods, and consciously abide by logical laws, thus greatly improving the agility of our thinking and avoiding unnecessary logical errors. Mastering logical knowledge can make spontaneous thinking become conscious thinking, improve the quality of thinking in both correctness and agility, and fundamentally improve the ability of logical thinking.
Human intelligence includes five elements: observation, imagination, attention, memory and thinking ability, among which thinking ability is the core of intelligence and the basis of human comprehensive ability. With the improvement of thinking ability, the ability to analyze and solve problems (including the ability to learn knowledge from other disciplines) is also improved accordingly. At present, the education circle and the whole society are discussing how to cultivate young people's innovative ability. The cultivation of innovative ability involves school education and social environment, but the key to innovative ability is innovative thinking and learning some basic logical knowledge, which plays an important role in improving people's innovative ability.
Second, learning logic helps to improve the ability to express ideas correctly.
Logic should be applied to correct thinking and correct expression of ideas. People often say that someone's article or speech is "clear thinking" or "confused thinking", "strong logic" or "lack of logic", which means that the expression of ideas should also be logical.
Logic is an important criterion to measure the style of discussion and explanation or the level of speech, and it is also a necessary condition for an article or speech to be convincing. Clear concepts, proper judgment, logical reasoning and persuasive arguments are some basic requirements for argumentative and explanatory articles or speeches, but it is impossible to meet these requirements without mastering basic logical knowledge. Mr. Wang Li, a famous linguist, said when discussing how to write a thesis with his graduate students: "The first and most important point in writing a thesis is to use logical thinking. Without scientific mind, you can't write a scientific paper. The so-called scientific mind is also a logical mind ... Second, when writing a paper, there must be a clear level ... This has a lot to do with logic. "
Thirdly, learning logic is helpful to improve the ability to identify mistakes and expose sophistry. Wrong and false statements not only can't stand the test of practice, but also often fail in logic. If you have a certain knowledge of logic, you can find some mistakes from logical analysis. In the history of science, before Galileo did the famous free-fall experiment on the leaning tower of Pisa, he logically discovered the mistake of Aristotle's assertion that "the falling speed of an object is directly proportional to its weight": "If the falling speed of an object is directly proportional to its weight, then if a big ball and a small ball are tied together to let it fall, its speed will be faster than that of the big ball (because the weight of two balls is greater than that of the big ball); If the falling speed of an object is directly proportional to its weight, tying a big ball and a small ball together will make it fall slower than the falling speed of the big ball (because the slow small ball will affect the falling speed of the big ball); It is impossible to be faster than the big ball and slower than the big ball; Therefore, the' law' that the falling speed of an object is directly proportional to its weight is wrong. " Galileo's inference uses the knowledge of logic about hypothetical reasoning and the law of contradiction.
Logic is also a powerful weapon to expose sophistry. Sophistication is deliberately defending fallacies by violating logic. Therefore, mastering logical knowledge can help us expose sophistry logically. For example, there is an article that proves the existence of mountain gods by the fact that "an expedition encountered an avalanche in the process of conquering Meili Snow Mountain, which led to the death of all expedition members" and that "Meili Snow Mountain is a sacred mountain and cannot be trampled on". This sophistry, which proves the existence of God by chance, is a one-sided sophistry, and people with a little logical accomplishment can easily see through its absurdity: according to the principle of logic, it is impossible to prove a serious point of view only by individual examples. Adventure is a sport with great risks. How can an accident prove that this mountain is a "sacred mountain"? There are many things about climbing without death. Mount Everest is a sacred mountain in the eyes of Tibetans. Groups of climbers climbed Mount Everest, but most of them were not killed. If the death of a group of climbers can prove that this mountain has a soul, if no more climbers are killed, isn't it more obvious that this mountain has no soul?
2. Establish logical concepts and cultivate scientific spirit.
Logic is also a humanities subject. In the process of mastering logical tools and training logical thinking, people's logical concept can be gradually enhanced. Since any science should apply logic, the concept of logic is one of the important factors of scientific spirit.
The so-called logical concept refers to the concept of consciously using logical tools to explore truth, safeguard truth and spread truth. The logical concept includes the following aspects:
First, the concept of independent thinking and dare to doubt.
Science requires people to think independently, while superstition requires people to follow blindly. This is because science is not afraid of doubt and criticism, while superstition cannot stand doubt and scrutiny. Science always develops in the process of daring to doubt and constantly denying old ideas. If Galileo had not dared to doubt Aristotle's "law of free fall", there would have been no experiment on the leaning tower of Pisa, and people's understanding of free fall would have stayed at the wrong level. During the ten-year cultural catastrophe, many people consciously or unconsciously followed some wrong theories and did a lot of incredible stupid things. Today, the reason why illegal pyramid schemes can confuse many people is inseparable from their lack of logical training, independent thinking and daring to doubt their ideas. Logic holds that any thought must have sufficient reasons to be proved to be true. " Applying this principle, we have to ask any theory and viewpoint, whether it is put forward by a master or an authoritative person: Is there a sufficient reason for this viewpoint? Can it stand the test of practice?
Second, boldly explore innovative ideas.
Science should develop and society should progress, and people's understanding of nature and society will never stay at the same level. There are always areas to be explored in nature and human society. To understand their laws in order to adapt to it and transform it, we must be brave in exploration and bold in innovation. Innovative spirit is not only a question of ability, but also a question of concept, and the core of innovative ability and innovative concept is innovative thinking; Innovative thinking must use all kinds of logical reasoning, assumptions, arguments and other thinking processes and methods. In the process of learning logic, people can gradually form the habit of innovative thinking.
Third, thinking and language expression should have strict concepts.
It is the basic requirement of logic that the thinking process and the language of expressing ideas should be rigorous. Stiffness is mainly reflected in the identity, non-contradiction, clarity of thinking and the logical rules and requirements of reasoning process. In today's media and other publications, even in some laws, regulations and policies, it is not uncommon to lack logical rigor. For example, a major newspaper commented on the status of newspaper editors, saying: "The current situation of newspaper editors ... one of the main problems is that the number of truly qualified editors is small and the quality is poor." How can a "truly qualified" editor be "of poor quality"? Typical contradiction. The occurrence of similar logical errors is related to the weak logical concept of relevant personnel. Through the systematic study of logical knowledge, we can cultivate the logical concept that thinking and its language expression should be rigorous.
Fourth, any proposition must have a demonstrable concept.
People should express their views on some social phenomena in social life. With the development of democracy and legal system in China, people will have more and more opportunities to participate in social life. If a viewpoint is put forward as a formal proposition and is expected to be accepted by others, there must be sufficient reasons, which is the argument of this viewpoint. Why should thoughts be argumentative? What kind of thought is argumentative? Why can't universal judgment be proved only by examples? How can we make our thoughts controversial? These problems can only be solved by systematic learning of logical knowledge.
-Excerpted from Logic (by Yang Shusen, Higher Education Press, April 20 10), p.15.